1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a kneeling board for roofers, having an anti-slip pad for attachment to the underside of the board. The kneeling board is especially well suited for use by roofers and others working on steeply inclined surfaces.
2. Description of Related Art
Roofers and other construction workers that commonly work on steeply inclined surfaces often have difficulty maintaining their working positions, and roofers, especially, end up doing a considerable amount of their work while kneeling on the inclined surface.
The rough surface texture of the plywood sheathing, the backing paper, and especially of the commonly-used asphalt shingles, generally provides adequate frictional forces to hold the worker's knees and feet in place.
However, the hardness of those materials makes working on one's knees extremely uncomfortable and the worker must therefore take frequent breaks to relieve the pressure from the knees. In addition, the abrasiveness of these roofing materials quickly wears out the knee areas of the worker's clothing and greatly accelerates the wear on the shoe soles. The stone gravel that makes up the upper surface of asphalt shingles is highly abrasive, and the gravel texture can produce extremely uncomfortable pressure concentration on the worker's knees at the points of contact between the knees and the pieces of gravel.
While there are oftentimes foot supports temporarily attached to the roof to provide the roofer with more secure footing, and to relieve, to a limited extent, the pressure on the worker's knees, such supports do not provide adequate comfort to improve worker efficiency by reducing the number or length of work breaks.
A roofing aid on which the roofer can sit or kneel was proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,230,202. That roofing aid employs an anti-slip underlayer substantially permanently affixed into a frame, which has a sitting or kneeling surface as its upper surface. That roofer's aid further does not provide a foothold surface for retaining a secure footing on the device when the worker is working from a kneeling position.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a kneeling board for use in working on inclined surfaces that has an easily removable and replaceable anti-slip pad at the underside of the board, a resilient kneeling pad on an upper surface of the board, and a foot-engaging projection portion on the board, whereby a worker can kneel on the pad and secure his foot or feet against the projection.
It is another principal object of the present invention to provide a kneeling board that will remain in place on a sloped roof surface, and which provides a comfortable kneeling surface for the worker, and which provides an area at which the worker can secure his feet or toes to gain a foothold on the kneeling board.